Six beans, six dates

In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, he plants six innocent little
beans and they turn into a giant beanstalk, that leads him to a giant
man, that leads him to a pot of gold.

Six little seeds… Six little dates.

Starting this quest six (ish) weeks ago, I’ve realised how much
momentum I had lost. I felt like I knew no single men, like there WERE
no single men, because I’d stopped either looking for them, meeting
them or paying attention to them.

Like inertia which keeps you stopped when you are stopped, but keeps
you moving once you’re off, this challenge has started slowly. It was,
after all, starting from a complete standstill. But gradually I’m
picking up momentum…

Last weekend, my good friend PJ took it upon himself to add his weight
to my quest. After first scoping out the dating potential of a gay bar
in Soho (nil), he approached a couple of blokes in a bar in Shoreditch
to ask if they were single, and if they’d like to date me.

THAT BLUNTLY.

All of a sudden I felt about 12, standing on a street corner with my
friends, opposite a corner full of boys, who would send emissaries
shuttling between the two groups – ‘My mate really fancies you. Will
you go out with him?’

Almost twenty years later, it seems that golden tactic actually works.
One of them came over, introduced himself, took my number, texted me,
and the date is in the diary…

Six little seeds… six little dates. Like seeds nothing happens for a
while, but one by one they’re beginning to sprout. I wonder what’s at
the end of the beanstalk?